Earlier this month, at the National Head Start Association conference in DC, I had the opportunity to speak with Teachstone’s Ambassadors. The Ambassadors are one of our investments in making sure we are always listening to the profession we strive to support, the teachers.

Often, when I am engaged in professional development focusing on vocabulary lessons with teachers in bilingual classrooms, I am asked “Should I speak to the child in English or Spanish?” My answer is never simply one or the other.

If you missed our webinar, “What is Data-Driven Professional Development and Why Does It Work”, you can watch the full recording here. Rebecca Berlin, Scott Siegfried, and Padma Rajan covered how they use data to improve child outcomes.

By training, I’m an accountant. Or as some on my staff say, “a bean counter.” I like to know what things are going to cost, I need to know that we can pay for them, and of course, I want to know that we are getting a strong return on our investment (a.k.a. ROI).

I remember when the word “CLASS” struck fear within Head Start teaching staff. When the Office of Head Start announced that CLASS scores would be used as one measure of program quality during program monitoring reviews, it left many teachers anxious and concerned. Imagine being a teacher in a small rural program knowing that your CLASS scores alone could result in the loss of critical services for children, a valuable resource for the community, and jobs.

Try googling “data-driven professional development.” That’s what I did this morning and it yielded over nine million results. But what’s all the buzz about? What kind of data is important to capture? And how can that data be used to drive professional development?